1/20/69

Tonight’s subject is eschatology. Eschatology is the doctrine of the last things. It is the dramatic end of history and the beginning of the eternal salvation of the individual who arrives at that point in time. The end of history and the appearance of the Son of man who is God come together after the tribulation of human experience. And of that day and hour only the Father knows.

So you will say, you speak of the Father as another and yet you say we are destined to awaken as the Father. Well, I do not deny that. God the Father is other, but not other than ourselves. Other yes, but not really and wholly other than ourselves: his Spirit is in us. Were that not so, he could not commune with us. So we are told, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth; bring them all who are called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Is. 43:6-7). Created for his glory because his glory cannot be given to another; therefore, if I’m created for his glory, I have to be the very one who created me (Is. 42:8).

Well now, that is eschatology—when we come to the very end of human tribulation. No one will avoid it, not one person in the world will avoid playing all the parts. So envy no one! You either have played it or you will play it. You may pity yes, we pity others, but you’ve played that part or you will play it. And you will not come to this dramatic end until you’ve played all the parts. In that day…and no one knows it but the Father within you knows the day. Now all the events were predicted and are fulfilled. Their full meaning is now understood in the light of the new things. What new things? We read in Isaiah—and bear in mind, all the stories are visions—the Book of Isaiah begins “This is the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos.” He tells you it’s a vision and the sixty-six chapters do not deny it or modify it or in any way contradict it as a vision. We speak of the vision of Obadiah, Jeremiah (“And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah”), the vision of Ezekiel, and they’re all visions. This is not secular history.

So here, in the Book of Isaiah, the 42nd chapter, “Behold, the former things have come to pass and new things I now declare to you; before they spring forth I tell you of them” (verse 9). A literal rendering of the first part of that verse would be, “The former things, behold they have come.” But man will not believe the individual to whom they come; it’s not what the world was looking for. The world was looking for something entirely different than that which happened in the first one, and he told them exactly what happened in him: the entire vision of all the prophets unfolded in him. He knew this was “the end,” the end of history, the end of the tribulation of human experience, and his entry into what he called the kingdom of God. It’s entirely different from what the world expected. The world expects some physical being coming from without to save. And so today it came to Israel, for the entire eschatology of the Old Testament is the coming of Jehovah. He came, but they would not believe it. They thought of him in terms of something entirely different from the way in which he comes. He comes only to fulfill what he had predicted. He predicted it through his prophets and said that something new would happen.

“These former things, behold, they have come and now they’re here.” What are they? Well, the experiences of the one who fulfilled scripture. Everything in scripture is fulfilled in man in the last day. So he is the fulfillment of the prophecy of himself, for he prophesied what he would do. He would enter into the limitation of man and take upon himself the restriction of man. Become man by emptying himself of all that was his and take upon himself the form of a slave, and was born in the likeness of man; and became obedient unto death, even death upon the cross of man (Phil. 2:7). This is what God became, having foretold through the prophets what he would experience as man—but not on the outside. And when the one in whom it began to unfold told the story, they did not believe it.

So today, we still have that fundamental rock, Israel, carrying on by its calendar year—it’s now approaching the 6,000th year because to them he has not come. When it comes to the individual, then his B.C. turns into A.D. We cannot claim although we write letters and say this is now the year 1969, and we will write it out because it’s part of the world of Caesar. And so will the Jew write out 1969, but in his faith he keeps alive the long passage of time because he feels Jehovah did not come. He counts in an entirely different way, and everything said through his prophets that he inspired, the individual experiences personally.

Now here, if the whole thing is a vision, what must I do to experience it in vision? I must actually re-enact the entire drama within myself. Aside from the resurrection which takes place within us; aside from the birth as foretold to Abraham which takes place within us; aside from the three who appear unexpectedly…they were not seen approaching, they just simply suddenly appeared to bear witness to the birth foretold; aside from the story of the serpent in the wilderness when man himself becomes the serpent and ascends into heaven; aside from all the things told, man himself experiences them. Now here, who would have thought for one moment, I know I didn’t, that I would re-enact the story of the 22nd of Isaiah and the 53rd of Isaiah in one night? For remember, these things are all written out and they’re not paragraphed, they’re not in chapter form, in fact they’re not even punctuated so that there are commas between them. In fact, one word goes into the other. It is only man who has taken this manuscript and tried to give verses, paragraphs and chapters to it.

But here, the 22nd and 53rd of Isaiah one night without expecting it or dreaming about it, it suddenly unfolded within me. As we are told in the 53rd, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (Verse 1). Well, here I find myself in the presence of twelve men in a room like this, just like this, not as big, and I’m seated on the floor facing my twelve and simply explaining the Word of God. One of the twelve rose quickly and departed, and I knew intuitively that he was going to tell the authorities what he had just heard. I knew he was going to tell them. He had no sooner departed than a tall, handsome, wonderful looking man, I would say about 6’4” or 6’6”, a tall, good looking lad, well-dressed in costly robes, entered. He walked through, as straight as an arrow, walked to the end of the room, turned at right angles, walked to the end, turned at right angles, came down the center. But the minute he entered the room he was so important that all of us rose…the eleven who were left and myself. So we all rose and stood at attention while he came down, turned, and then down, turned, and came in front of me. As he came in front of me he took a mallet and a wooden peg and hammered it into my shoulder. I felt every blow, but it was not painful. I felt the impact of this wooden peg into my shoulder. Then he took a sharp instrument and with one quick circular motion severed my sleeve and pulled it off and discarded it. Then he stretched his arms out and he formed the cross. Then he embraced me and he kissed me on the right side of my neck, and I in turn kissed him on the right side of his neck. As the vision faded, I could see that lovely shade of baby-blue, a light, light blue that was the severed robe. His robe was costly, but this seemed to be a priceless robe that he severed from my arm. So, “Who would believe our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

In the 22nd, he puts a peg into the shoulder of the one that he has chosen and on that peg he hangs all the burdens of Israel. Then after he has worn it for awhile, the peg is broken and all these utensils of the temple fall from the peg: he has played his part. It was the most dramatic night. Here was part of the eschatology, part of the end, when the whole drama which was not understood and could not be understood if you’re looking for someone to come from without to play it. It’s only understood when the individual experiences it. Then he tells it to those who would not believe it, but he tells it anyway…whether one believes it or not.

So it is not the end of the world as people interpret these things year after year. This past year we had a huge crowd leave California. They went off to Georgia, because we were going to have an earthquake that would completely inundate us. So they went off to the east, others went to other parts of the east, and the first time in recorded history they had an earthquake in the east that shook twelve states. So they went off to get away from what they called the earthquake that was going to inundate California. What does it matter…there is no death. The individual who seems to die is restored to life. He will find himself young, not a baby but young, about twenty years of age, and he will be in an environment best suited for the work that is still to be done in him. He will be cast in a role that he has not yet played, but he’ll play every role in the book. Only when he has played all the tribulations of human experience will he arrive at that hour, that day called the Day of the Lord. And only the Father knows it and the Father in one, in man, knows it.

So here, everyone is going to play it…I don’t care who you are. It is God’s purpose and he is able to fulfill his purpose: to give himself to you. He created you for his glory that you may radiate the glory of God and that you may actually be the express image of his person. No one can stop it. But you will not arrive at that moment called the moment of eschatology until you have played all the parts and gone through all the tribulations of human experience.

So I say, envy no one. Doesn’t matter what they’ve done, what they’re doing, don’t envy them. You either have played it or you will. You pity someone…you’ve played it or you will. So that all the parts in the world that can be conceived…for the Bible has every conceivable evil in the world described openly. There isn’t one thing today that you can conceive of that man could do to man but what that is in the Bible, and it’s described openly. Well, you’ve played them all.

So, the last days, the last things, are simply the events of scripture unfolding in you in the most dramatic form imaginable. You can’t conceive of the drama when it really begins to happen within you…when it actually happens. I’m not speaking of an adumbration, I’m not speaking of a foreshadowing; I’m speaking of the actual event when it happens. It’s the most dramatic thing in the world when it possesses you and here you are the center of the entire Bible: you are the Lord Jesus Christ! Well, these things happen, as scripture reveals it, to the Lord Jesus Christ and they happen to you. Then you know who you are. You are the Lord Jesus Christ…you are the Lord Jehovah. So you tell it. They say, “You, a little non-entity who suffers, who has nothing in the world that you can brag about, and you dare to make this bold assertion? Why that’s blasphemy!” Well, that’s what he’s accused of being. He blasphemed by claiming that “I and the Father are one…that when you see me, you’ve seen the Father” (Jn. 10:30; 14:9). But no one had eyes to see him. He said, “Had you known me you would have known my Father also, but you know neither me nor my Father” (Jn. 8:19). So you will do these things because you do not know me, and therefore you do not know my Father, for I and my Father are one. So the Father in you is playing the part.

Now, the 42nd Psalm…the night that I fulfilled that, I certainly went to bed not expecting anything comparable to that. Here I found myself leading an enormous crowd in this gay procession to the house of God, and then a voice rings out, and the voice said “God walks with them.” A woman at my side asks the voice, “If God walks with us, where is he?” and the voice answered, “At your side.” She turned to her left and looked into my face and became hysterical it struck her so funnily, and she said, “What? Neville is God?” The voice replied, “Yes in the act of waking.” Then the voice spoke only to me—others did not hear the voice—and the voice spoke in the depth of my soul and said to me, “I laid myself down within you to sleep and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed…” and I knew exactly how he’s going to finish that sentence.

I became so excited that I was actually nailed upon this body in the same manner that we are told by tradition that he was nailed upon the cross. But it was not painful. There were vortices…a vortex held me here, a vortex held me here, a vortex in my hand, one in my side and two vortices each foot; and here I am with six nails but each nail was a vortex. And it was ecstatic, it was a joyful thing! It wasn’t anything that was sad or painful. And I knew the story of the crucifixion: that “no man takes away my life, I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again” (Jn.10:18) and I deliberately took upon myself this limitation. Well, who did it?—the Father. For I heard the voice that night, “I laid myself down within you to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream” and I knew what he was going to say, that he was dreaming that he was I, and when the dream is over and he awakes, I am he…that I can then radiate his glory and bear the express image of his person.

Well, that is not for me alone; that’s for us. Now listen to the words, “The glory that thou gavest me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one”—the very glory thou gavest me by allowing me, your own creation, to radiate your glory and become the very image of your being. I have told them how it happened. I’ve told them how it’s going to happen, so I’ve given them the glory that thou gavest me, that they may be one even as we are one. For now we’re one. “I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfectly one. I have made known unto them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love by which thou lovest me may be in them” (Jn.17:26). The same love, not less than that which thou gavest me. So the whole then becomes one. But I say, in the end everyone in a very short interval of time will experience the whole Bible. You will tell it as I am telling it. You will find a few who will believe you and you will find a majority who will not believe you. But it’s perfectly alright. They have to go through all the tribulations of human experience, every one. Not one person in the world will skip it.

You may play the part of what is called today the beautiful people. By that they mean they have money, inherited wealth, so they’re called beautiful. Then they love at the end of the year to be named among the ten-best-dressed, so they can spend at the end of a year maybe a quarter of a million dollars on clothes for the one year, and will not be seen wearing the same thing a second time. That’s sent off to charity or to someone else. I knew someone in New York City who used to go to these fabulous homes and buy their dresses, and then she had a shop and she would sell them. Notified her clientele that she had, say, Jackie’s wardrobe of last year and they would all come flocking down to buy what Jackie wore the year before, because she wouldn’t be seen in the same thing a second time. Well, she’s playing her part and playing it beautifully, but maybe tomorrow she will have to play, if she hasn’t played it, she’ll have to play the part of the scrub woman. She will play it! Let no one tell you that you do not play all the parts. You will not arrive at eschatology until you have played every part as written in scripture, and there isn’t one evil thing that man can do to man that is not described in the Bible openly. And you’ve played it.

So in the end I could see a man betraying me. I’ve played the part of the betrayer. It’s all now coming back into my world. I was betrayed and I betrayed or I could not fulfill scripture. So everyone has played it all. Don’t try to single out this part or that part. You’ll be cast in it. You’ll go through the gate, like leaving the set on a stage, and you go from view. You’re not seen by the audience for awhile, but you aren’t dead. You’ll re-enter, maybe coming back playing a different part. But in the great theater you depart this world and people call you dead, burn the little body and turn it into dust, but you are not dead. You are restored to life instantly and finding yourself in an environment best suited for the work that is still to be done in you. For you must play all the tribulations of human existence.

So, eschatology is not the ending of the world where the earth collapses and the moon ceases to be and the stars fall. No it is the end of history, human history, and the beginning of the time of eternal salvation: that abrupt cleavage between this world and the transcendental world of God where now you’re in an entirely different world, radiating his glory created by your very being. For now you’ve become the Father. And the Father created you to radiate his glory and to bear the express image of his person. So do not look when these fellows begin to talk about the world coming to an end, meaning that the earth is going to dissolve or we’re going to have some frightful, catastrophic thing in the world. Forget it! So, it’s simply a dramatic ending of your world of history as human history, and the beginning of an eternal history where it’s entirely different. You can’t describe it, because there aren’t any images on earth that one can use to describe what happens. You can’t describe it. Slight little things you may bring in, but you can’t possibly describe the new life. It’s something entirely different: you’re equipped to do it all and you are God. You are not some little pygmy; you are actually God himself.

So you see someone and you condemn him…the chances are you’re going to play it tomorrow. So don’t condemn, for you’re simply moving towards the fulfillment of what you condemn. And let no one be the judge. Don’t you be the judge…you know too much now. All you can do is hope you have played them all so far and that tonight may come your eschatology. That tonight may come the end of history as the world understands it. For sacred history has been brought to its climax and fulfillment in Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ in you is the one that brings it to climax and fulfillment. He said, “I in them and thou in me.” Well, as he addresses the Father, he says, “Oh righteous Father.” Well now, if the Father is in me and I am in you, is not the Father in you? So the Father is in you and Christ is in you, and Christ is the pattern man that must fulfill scripture. So as it erupts in Christ—for in him the plan was made—and so the whole thing erupts in you and everything in scripture unfolds.

So you are the one spoken of as Abraham. The promise was made to Abraham that you will have a child. Well now, you have the child, therefore, what part are you playing? Suddenly he looked up and three men stood before him and they were messengers of the Lord, and he didn’t realize it was the Lord himself. But he did entertain them and then prepared a feast for them. They come so suddenly you don’t see them approaching just as told you in scripture. They’re not approaching; they suddenly are there. You’re diverted for one second, say, three, four seconds, you’re diverted from the thing out of which you’ve emerged by the wind, the unearthly wind, which is Spirit, which is God. As you’re diverted and look back, suddenly those that you did not see approaching are sitting where what was a body and the body is gone. They removed the Lord…where have they put his body? The body is gone, because he only wore it for awhile, and while he wore it something happened in him.

Now a lady wrote me this past week and she said, “I had a dream. I was digging in the earth, digging and digging, and I was using a shovel. The earth seemed loose, yet I was digging and digging and I knew as I was digging in the earth I was digging my own brain.” It’s a lovely vision! It’s a true vision: that’s where everything takes place. She was digging in her own brain, for it takes place in the earth, and man is made of the dust of the earth. So she was actually digging in her own brain. That vision came perfectly for her. Well, she is “on the verge,” but I could not tell her the day as no one knows the day or the hour. But many of you are “on the verge” of eschatology…coming to the end of the journey. Let no one tell you that he knows when it will be, for only the Father knows. The Father knows the day and the hour. You sleep and suddenly out of the nowhere this thing happens.

Now a strange thing…here, if you read the Book of John…and it differs somewhat from the synoptics…John pinpoints the very day of the week on which it will happen. He pinpointed, if you know scripture, that it will happen between six PM on Sunday and six PM on Monday when the birth will take place. Well, the birth is followed (really preceded) by the resurrection. They take place the same night. Well, it happened that way with me. It was the wee hours, four in the morning on Monday. I went to bed on Sunday night about eleven and here in the wee hours of the morning—which is Sunday night but really Monday morning—that’s when it happened. So it seems that you follow the same pattern. And you can talk about it and tell it and they’ll point their finger at you and say, “What on earth is he trying to say? Is he trying to tell me that he has experienced the story of Jesus Christ? That’s blasphemy!” Well, they have to say it. They repeat the same thing over and over— whenever he comes he blasphemes. Whenever he comes he is denied by those who hear him. It’s the eternal story.

But everyone comes into the world from B.C. Then suddenly when it happens his world turns into the year of the Lord, A.D., and from that moment on he is in the world of A.D. No one until it happens is actually in A.D. They are still living before the coming of Jehovah. So, the Old Testament is simply crowded with eschatology and it is the coming of Jehovah. But he came and was not recognized. It was not what they were expecting; they were expecting something entirely different from what happened. All that is going to happen, I’m going to tell you, in your world you’re going to fulfill scripture. You’re going to feel so wonderful within you that you are the central character of the Bible…that everything written in the Bible was all about you! Even though it happened to others it was all about you, because in the end there is no other. We’re all one. And so, I dwell in them and thou dwellest in me that we may be one, perfectly one. So in the end all are gathered together into one body and they’re one Spirit, they’re one Lord, one God and Father of all (Eph. 4:4).

You will not have a different Son from the speaker; it will be the same Son. I tell that to priests and to rabbis and to ministers of the Protestant church, why they throw their hands up in holy horror. They say, “Well, you’ve taken all of my religion from me. If that is true, all that I have been taught as a minister is now false.” I said, no, it isn’t false but I’m telling you what I know from experience. I have actually experienced scripture. This is true; it is not what you have been taught. Jesus Christ is God the Father, and Jesus Christ is in you. One day you will find out that you are God the Father; and because you are God the Father, there must be a Son to bear witness, for no one knows the Father except the Son (Mat. 11:27). The Son must come into your world and then you will see who the Son really is. You will know him; you don’t have to ask anyone. The minute you look at him, you know exactly the character that he is, and he knows who he is and he knows who you are. This relationship reveals you as God the Father.

Yet here you are in this little garment that suffers as all garments do. You are in the world of Caesar until the very end. You are not going to be restored to life at the end; you’re finished with it. This dramatic end has come, the end of history. But until you’ve finished telling the story as told us in the Book of Acts he remained, and it doesn’t say how he ended. The story of Paul, he was at home talking from morning to night about the Word of God and the kingdom of heaven. It does not give us any way how Paul ended…in spite of tradition where they claimed he was a martyr, meaning that he was murdered. He wasn’t murdered. The word martyr means “witness.” Yes, he was a martyr in that sense: he was a witness to the truth of God’s Word. But all these so-called martyrs were not martyrs as we speak of a martyr; they were witnesses to the truth of the Word of God. For, the word is true and someone has to witness it. So he was a witness to the very end, but it does not tell us when he departed or how he departed. In spite of what the churches claim, it is not found in scripture.

So when it happens to you, you will tell it. You may not tell it as I tell it, publicly from a platform, but you will tell it. You can’t restrain the impulse to tell it. As we are told in Jeremiah: “If I say, ‘I will not mention it or speak anymore in his name,’ then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire, and I am tired of holding it in, and I cannot” (Jer. 20:9). It is simply something within you and you cannot stop it. So someone will ask you to please not mention it anymore, because you disturb those around about you. They don’t want to hear it. They’re quite satisfied with their church, quite satisfied with their concept of who Jesus Christ is—he was someone who was born 2,000 years ago back in time and space and he is my Lord to whom I pray, so forget it, that’s the one I want. So don’t you come with any stupidness that Christ is in you, and that the same Christ that is written up in scripture is the Christ in you, and that the same thing must happen to you. That it must be said of you, and you will know it’s true: “In the volume of the book it’s all about me” (Ps. 40:7; Heb. 10:7)).

So when David calls me Father, it’s all about me. So he said to David…and David called him “my lord.” Well, “my Lord” is simply the expression of a son of a father. He always referred to his father as “my lord.” But no one seems to have seen it because they haven’t had the vision. So you talk to a rabbi, talk to a minister, you talk to a priest, “Oh, no, couldn’t be” and yet he said he’s a father. If he’s a father, he has to have a son. So he said, “When you see me you see the Father.” Well, if I’m a father, then where is the child? If there is no child to bear witness to my fatherhood, I am not a father. Therefore, if he is not a father then he’s not God, for God is Father. “I have made known unto them thy name and I will make it known that the love by which thou hast loved me may be in them” (Jn. 17), same love. Well, the name he made real was the name “Father.” I made thy name real to them—I told them your name. What was the name?—the name was Father, and I and my Father are one (Jn. 10:30). Well, if I and my Father are one, then where is the one to bear witness that I’m a father? For, “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mat. 11:27). So here comes the Son.

Well, it isn’t Jesus Christ standing before himself calling himself Father. It is his Son David who calls him Father. When he calls you Father, you have to be Jesus Christ, because David called him Father. So if he calls you Father, you are the same Jesus Christ. So I can say to every one of you, you’re going to have this experience and you’ll know that you are Jesus Christ. There are not a number of little Jesus Christs running around, there is only God the Father…only one Father. So if I’m the Father of God’s only begotten Son, as told me in the 2nd Psalm (verse 7), and then you have the same experience, then you and I are one, the same Father. And then if the whole vast world will have that experience then are we not one? So his prayer is that we be one, that they all become one as we are one. He speaks of the glory…just as Isaiah did…“I created them for my glory.” He said, “Now, the glory thou gavest me I have given unto them.” Didn’t take a little bit for myself and then share something else with them, the same glory, because there can’t be another. So in the end there is only one God, only one Lord, only one Father, and, may I tell you, only one Son. You will be the Father of that one Son, as I from my own experience know I’m the Father of that one and only Son.

So this is eschatology—when we arrive at the end, the very end and that dramatic sundering of the two, the end of history because I’ve experienced all the tribulations of human experience. I can’t bring it back to mind now, but I do know I’ve had to have played every part in this world to arrive at the fulfillment of scripture—the blind man, the deaf man, the poor man, the rich man, the beggar, the thief, the murderer, the betrayer, the betrayed, you name it, and scripture has mentioned every one of them. You can’t name one state in this world that is vile or evil that is not described in the Bible openly. So I’ve played them all. I think you have or you will. But I think you who come here have played them all. You would not be this constant had you not played them all. You’d find something far more interesting tonight, raining as it is, to be elsewhere. But no, you’ve played them or you would not be here, I’m telling you. So in the not distant future you will be fulfilling scripture and everything in it you will play.

But I can’t tell anyone the thrill when any one scene in scripture unfolds within you…it’s so dramatic. It’s so unlike anything. Now we today saw this great event in Washington, a new president, and it was colorful and perfectly marvelous, no question about it. It pales into insignificance compared to the dramatic quality that possesses you when scripture unfolds within you. Can you imagine yourself actually in the presence of the child bearing witness? “Unto us a child is born.” The child is there and you know exactly what happened to you and how you came out like one from a womb, but it was your skull. Then, five months later, “A son is given.” They’re two different events. So this 9th of Isaiah (verse 6), “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” are two entirely different. The son is given to bear witness to my fatherhood; the child is there to bear witness to my birth. I am the one born and a child is simply the symbol of birth. It’s an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. So my birth from above was symbolized in that of a child; but when the son is given it’s your fatherhood because he calls you Father. They are two entirely different events though they come together seemingly as one: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given.” And you think, well, the child and the son are the same, but they are not. They signify two dramatic events within you.

When they’ll happen I can’t tell anyone. I am quite sure that our new president today could feel the thrill when the crowd walked by and when he was actually sworn in by our chief justice…and it was a thrill. Undoubtedly he felt a tremendous thrill of accomplishment. But not like these. These thrills are so fantastic you can’t describe them. You know they will be experienced and only when they are experienced can one understand. It’s beyond anything you can describe! It belongs to the transcendental world of God…it’s not this world of history. A dramatic state when you like a serpent, a fiery serpent at that, ascend into heaven. And it reverberates, as you’re told, they all take it by storm. For, it’s simply like thunder when you enter or re-enter, I should say, heaven, having been sent out. You’ve played the part of the degenerate, you’ve played the part of one in generation; you’ve played all those parts, and now comes regeneration. All that you ever did is forgiven…I don’t care what it is. Everything man has ever done is forgiven when he begins to unfold scripture.

So eschatology is simply the doctrine of the last things. I’ve shared with you as you’ve shared with me your visions. I’ve shared with you the last things. I’ve told you exactly what happened to me, how these events unfolded within me. They came unexpectedly, suddenly. I certainly did not expect them and they came so suddenly upon me. Well, that’s how they come. They come like a thief in the night. You can’t watch for them, they happen suddenly. I certainly did not expect them and they came so suddenly upon me. Well, that’s how they come, like a thief in the night. But they will not happen until after you have experienced all the tribulations of human experience. So don’t try to go back…God in his infinite mercy has hidden from you the memory of the past. For if you could remember some of the horrible things that you have done as you’ve played the part, you couldn’t live with yourself. That you may not have that memory, it’s been taken from you for a purpose, because in the end it’s all washed out anyway. “Though your sins were as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” So it doesn’t matter.

So condemn no one, for you have played it or you will play it. But I say in your part you have played it. And you will know it because you are compassionate. You meet anyone and you have no condemnation, none whatsoever. Someone called me up and said, “My brother shot a man, killed him.” I didn’t ask why. He loved his brother as he loved his mother, who was weeping and weeping and carrying on. I said, I will hear the good news for you. It went on and on for about nine months and the verdict came in, freed, acquitted. He killed him and he knew he killed him, shot him. Why he shot him I never once asked the brother. It’s not my concern. He asked me to help. Well, all I could do was simply do what if I were the father of such a boy, I would want him set free. I can’t bring the one he killed back, but I would certainly want my son set free if I were the father of such a person. I do not believe in an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. So I simply assumed that I heard his voice and it was ecstatic as he told me that his brother was set free. Well, his brother was set free.

So I say to everyone, in the end having played all the parts, you will have compassion for every being in this world, and you will see nothing to condemn, nothing. What a play! It’s a horrible play! But in the end you will fully understand the meaning behind all the events and you will see that the one who conceived it in the beginning knew only through this play could he create beings to whom he could give himself. But really give himself in the full sense of the word. So it was God’s purpose to give himself to what he created so that the thing created became God. Whatever God was prior to that, that individual created, formed and made by God, had to be that as though he was never anything but. Here, something is formed in time and enters eternity, so it has no beginning, none. Can you conceive of something formed in time and receiving the gift of eternity so it has no beginning? Well, that’s what you are.

Now let us go into the Silence.

* * *

Now are there any questions, please?

Q: (inaudible)

A: You don’t understand? That’s a very good question, my dear. You could not be a father unless there’s a child to bear witness to the fact that you are a father, could you? If you say I’m a mother, well, the child might have died, but you would have proof that you did bear a child. So you can’t be a parent unless there is a child, can there be? In the 2nd Psalm we read, “I will tell of the decree of the Lord, he said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee’” (verse 7). Now bear in mind the Bible from beginning to end is all vision; it is not secular history. We speak of David as an actual physical being of flesh and blood—that is not the David of scripture. The David of scripture is an eternal state and that state is the being that you are playing now. You will play it perfectly. Everything that you play, you’re going to play it perfectly whether it be the thief or the honest one, the betrayer or the betrayed. You’re going to play that part perfectly.

So he said of David, “I have found in David, the son of Jesse”—now Jesse means “I am”—and that is God’s name forever and forever (Exod. 3:14). So, “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all my will” (Acts 13:22). So, the part that you play will do all your will. At the very end having played all you come to eschatology and then the summary of it all is David, the very essence, the summary of all the parts you’ve ever played. For in the Hebrew mind, history is made up of all the generations of men and their experiences, fused into a single whole, and this concentrated time into which all the generations and from which they spring is called eternity, called Olam. The word is Olam. Well, you can translate that eternity “the world,” but Olam which is called in another translation “the age.” We speak of an age…this age or that age. There are two ages. Now, if I took all of the parts I’ve ever played and bring them all into one and personify it, it would be David. That then is my son. I am so pleased with him because he didn’t falter. He obeyed my will when I said, now, you’ll be a thief in this part…you’ll be an honest man in this part.

David, may I tell you, if you read the story of David, you’ll wonder why anyone ever looked upon him as a noble, honorable king. He fell in love with a woman, Bathsheba. She was married to a man who only had one and David had many wives. He could afford many wives and he had them. This one, Uriah, only had one and it was Bathsheba. But he saw her and fell in love with her and wanted her lustfully, so he takes her husband and puts him in the front rank of the army knowing he would be killed so that then he could get Bathsheba. He violated every commandment. He danced nude before the ark when he was king, he played the part of the mad person to avoid being arrested, he did everything imaginable and yet that was David. So all the parts you have ever played put them all together and fuse them into one and it’s David, the eternal youth. The word Olam means “eternity,” so, “He’s put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that man cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (Ecc. 3:11).

And that was in man, so he plays all the parts…every one is already inwoven in man. You betrayed a love…you played the part where you swore that you would love one person and found yourself giving yourself to others. You also played the part of the one betrayed who kept the vows, and you played the one who did not keep the vows. So you played all the parts.

Q: (inaudible)

A: Both. You’ve played the male and female. You’ve also played the homo. You play everything in this world. One tells you, “Well, I’ve never played that!” Forget it. I had my dancing partner’s father and he had a peculiar fetish against homosexuals. I used to call him Pop—he was like a father to me—I said, “Pop, what possesses you?” because in my act I had this flamboyant homosexual. He was a terrific dancer and he was just simply carried away. So Pop condemned and condemned and I wouldn’t fire him. I said, “No, I like him…like the boy immensely. He does exactly what I want him to do in my act.” Well, this night Pop Johnson, who thought himself very much a man, had a dream and he had the most orgasmic experience with his brother. He was so…the next day he felt so unclean he couldn’t live with himself for over a month, because his own brother was the one who played the part in his dream. I said, “It serves you right!” Howard was in my act and Howard was a wonderful dancer. Why should I fire Howard to please him? Howard went to what they call the Mummers’ Ball back east. It’s the Mummers’ Ball where they all dress up and just carry on and have a most marvelous parade. It started in Philadelphia. Well, we had them in New York City. So this next day Howard didn’t come to the show. I had to rearrange the entire act, because Howard came on twice which allowed me to change my costume. So Howard was not only late, he didn’t come. So when he came in, I said “Well, Howard, what on earth has happened to you?” “Oh,” he said, “Neville, last night I went to the Mummers’ Ball.” I said, “You did?” He said, “Yes and I won the prize.” He said, “I was escorted on my right by three from West Point and on my left three from Annapolis, and here they walked me down the aisle, and I got first prize. I not only got the first prize, but I also won one of the judges!”

Good night.

Howard O’Shea